Manhattan partnership to create prosthetics materials

Manhattan Scientifics and Carpenter Technology have joined with a new industrial partner, Cochlear, to create customised metals for use in human prosthetics.

The group aims to tap into a global market worth approximately $25bn.

Dr Terry Lowe, chief metallurgical nanotechnology scientist at Manhattan Scientifics, said: ‘The present art makes use of metal prosthetics at work in concert with human tissue; they supplement each other but never truly become ’one’.

‘The goal of the project is the blending of human parts with our new biological parts to produce long-lasting integrated prosthetics that will improve the well-being of our ageing populations and enhance their independence.’

The joint project team includes biotech and materials researchers from Australia’s Monash and Swinbume universities, and the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation.

‘Our goal is to see our new class of metals, when fully developed, positively impact medical-device and prosthetics industries.

‘Cochlear is the world’s leader in prosthetic substitutes for hearing and, over time, we will hope to see our metal alloys used by Cochlear to provide a surgically implanted hearing device that dramatically improves the ability to hear for people who are profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.’